Following the deaths of almost anyone with any power or talent in Gemclod, I find myself forced to take command.
'Attention citizens of Gemclod! I, Commanderess Atomikus declare Martial law until such a time as a new ruling system can be established. Do not panic, there will be little effect on your daily lives.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many children have been unhappy since the ...incident at the refuge. I may have to institute a curfew to prevent tantrums.
On the plus side, they seem to have been cleaned recently.
OOC: yes that is his only page of stains!
Efforts have been undertaken to rescue young Wwen as well. I hope we can get to him in time.
Hmm, maybe there's a better way to get to him
When in doubt, dig a hole!
~~~~~~~~~~
I got acosted on my way to the barracks by six civilians.
'Um, excuse me? Commander Atomikus?'
'Yes, what is it?'
'Um, we'd like to, uh, volunter?'
'For what?'
'Military service?'
'Is... is that a yes?'
Welcome to the militia, Cucka, T-man, DarkHorse, Phoenix Taichou, FluffySquirrel and Scribleykins!
Izzy, Dirt5o8 and I welcome you warmly!
Well they're certainly keen!
We'd better get new axes made up. Where's that manager?
What a day!
Mayor RabidGolfCart orders me into an office as the new manager, and now a heavily armed near naked dwarman is demanding I get weaponry made.
She was a bit kinder once we'd gotten over the initial shouting. She's now the militia commander, and has the Fortress under martial law. I'm to look after all civilian affairs until we can get a new overseer set up.
I think I can do that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'MANAGEEEEER!'
'Yes, your Mayorlyness?'
'I require trifle pewter items at once. See that they are made.'
Sorry, boss! We need all the forges on arms and armour at the moment.
I'll be sure to stick a post-it slab up about it up somewhere...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
the water coming down the stairs is the emergency reroute of the Vile Flood, slayer of FPS
There's a naked child playing in a waterfall down near the forges. Not really sure it should be happening, but I'm also not sure what I can do about it.
Actually , there's a waterfall down the stairs to the forges...
Maybe I should sort that out.
I tracked down our chief Mason, Leperfish, and together with the Markus formerly known as 'Architect' we started working out a way to shut off the pumps.
Leperfish's team quickly got to work, and within a week we were well underway.
With a little luck, this device should go some way to stopping that damned flood.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There seem to be a lot of Dwarves leaving the fortress. I wonder where they're going...
Well that makes sense. It's good to see they aren't forgetting him.
Charlie has begun his last act as a free man!
Looks like he's trying to make it well worth it.
Damnit, Charlie! We don't have rubies to spare for your madness!
I'm getting concerned for Markus. I know he's been quiet since before I even arrived, but he just didn't seem to be there when we were designing. He pointed at things, he whispered to Leperfish, but otherwise he just stood and stared. I'm getting scared that he'll do something stupid...
I'll have a word with Leperfish about keeping an eye on him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Much to Lazarenth's joy, the trapped child Wwen has been released safely!
Lazarenth imediately got him sat down with a giant bowl of plump helmets. Little guy's doing ok.
He should make a full physical recovery, although I worry about the damage to his young mind.
'BEHOLD MY GLORY!'
'Yeah, yeah, very nice, Charlie, but don't think I've forgotten about you. Get your ass to jail!
'Awh...' 
Hmm... That is one nice chest.
'Hey, Tyskil! Do you think that cabinet would look good in my room?'
'Hell no! Far to gaudy.'
'Damn... Well do you want it?'
Commander Atomikus to the gatehouse! We are under attack!
By the gods, they have come. To the battlements!
'What do we have, GreenIntern?'
'Trolls, Ma'am. They've stumbled into a trap in the North-West.'
'Trolls? No others?'
'Not that we can see. Your orders, Commander?'
'Call the squads to the gatehouse and bring the civilians indoors. It's time to see how good these recruits are.'
The New Paints, Guilded men and Fair Axes will gather at the entryway, the Knives of Dominating will muster on the battlements above
Everyone inside! Every Dwen, Dwarman and Dwim!
Count your families! Count your friends! Make sure none are forgotten! What's wrong, FebreezeNinja?
'MY BABY! WHERE IS MY BABY!'
'LorrdErnie! Has anyone seen him? Atomikus, is he still outside?'
'I'm sorry, Tyskil, he's been snatched!'
'NOOOOO! MY BABY! LET ME AT THEM!'
'I'm sorry, FebreezeNinja! I'm so sorry! There's nothing we can do.'
'NOOOOO!...*sob*...He had just started farming!
Losing a Dwen like that hurt more than I could have guessed, and it wasn't even my child. All we could do was stay down in the great hall and wait for news. Not that everyone thought the same...
'HEY! Where the hell are you all going?!'
'The Minty memorial. His spirit will protect us better than you amateurs ever could.'
'Trolls approaching! Hold until they make the bridge!'
'Aye, Commander!'
Wait... There's A CHILD ON THE BATTLEFIELD!
OOC: page one of at least twenty
'Vugley! Get your excessively filthy body out of there!'
He hasn't stopped. He's still going to the M.E.C.H.
DAMNIT, I WILL NOT LOSE ANOTHER BEARDLING THIS DAY!
CHARGE THE FAIR AXES!
The recruits roared and surged forward. The Troll was suirprisingly nimble, dodging and weaving all over the entryway. His luck ran out next to the Stairs of Doom, and he was finally cut down, DarkHorse making the killing blow.
That was but one. The others were setting campfires at the South-West tower.
'Commander! Should we sally forth?'
'Calm your blood-lust, DarkHorse. They could have hidden support...'
'But, Ma'am! If we wait then theyll definitely get support. Shouldn't we end this quickly?
'Damnit, DarkHorse... That makes perfect sense.'
'FOR GEMCLOOOOD!'
The recruits once again charged ahead, meeting two trolls near the brook. Cucka and T-man made several strikes at the first before DarkHorse clove the beast in two.
The second was engaged by Dirt5o8, who kept the Troll busy until Scribleykins could get behind it and handily remove it's head.
A third Troll joined us from across the river, only to lose a hand to Phoenix Taichou. Now fleeing, the Troll found one of our cage traps, sadly denying Phoenix his kill.
Four down, five to go...
Mr. Vile wrote :-
At least we know who to blame now.
Bad Munki wrote :-
(Archiver's note: there was some discussion about dwarven gender terms...)
Agreed, the proper term there would have been, "Thank all that is dwarmenly."
There are dwarves of both sexes, and male dwarves are called dwen, and female dwarves are called dwarmen.
Children are dwim.
Babies are dwelits.
FluffySquirrel wrote :-
Dear Diary
After weeks of walking, got to Gemclod, last stronghold of the dwarven race.. we're all going to die.
Arrived to find everyone covered in blood, half the fort dropping and dying from plague (not surprising!), and the ones that ran away all drowned in a sea or something. Pretty worried I'm going to die too, so I did the sensible thing and signed up for the military, at least then I'd have some protection, right?
Wrong.. 'apparently' all the armour is covered in disease and we're not allowed to wear it. Going to keep my eyes out for any clean sets I think, cause that's just ridiculous.
*hasty carvings follow*
Screw this, the current? Overseer wants us to go fight trolls .. in our pants. OUR PANTS. If I survive this, I better get some damn armour.